THE HUMBOLDT CUP: ON NARRATIVE, TAXONOMIES, AND COLONIAL VIOLENCE

This new forum focuses on the topic of coloniality, in all its forms. The concept of the coloniality of power was first proposed by sociologist Aníbal Quijano to describe a set of practices whose origins he traces to the project of European colonialism. This article introduces the importance of coloniality in the context of a specific artifact on display in Berlin, the Humboldt Cup. The images in the Cup offer an insight into the establishment of racial hierarchies, modes of classification, and narratives of subjugation as fundamental aspects of the colonizing process, manifestations of power that, to this day, have a profound impact on how technology is shaped and developed.

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